What is a black hole? Do they really exist? How do they form? How are they related
to stars? What would happen if you fell into one? How do you see a black hole if they
emit no light? What’s the difference between a black hole and a really dark star?
Could a particle accelerator create a black hole? Can a black hole also be a worm
hole or a time machine?
In Astro 101: Black Holes, you will explore the concepts behind black holes. Using the theme of black holes, you will learn the basic ideas of astronomy, relativity, and quantum physics.
After completing this course, you will be able to:
• Describe the essential properties of black holes.
• Explain recent black hole research using plain language and appropriate analogies.
• Compare black holes in popular culture to modern physics to distinguish science fact from science fiction.
• Describe the application of fundamental physical concepts including gravity, special and general relativity, and quantum mechanics to reported scientific observations.
• Recognize different types of stars and distinguish which stars can potentially become black holes.
• Differentiate types of black holes and classify each type as observed or theoretical.
• Characterize formation theories associated with each type of black hole.
• Identify different ways of detecting black holes, and appropriate technologies associated with each detection method.
• Summarize the puzzles facing black hole researchers in modern science.

MG

its the Best ever Course and i learned a lot things about which i have not heard before i will strongly recommend this to people who want to know about black holes.

JS

Jun 25, 2019

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

Definitely good introductory course for someone interested in black holes! The instructors are funny and really taught me things with certain detail. Like it!

De la lección

Life and Death of a Star

Stars are the progenitors of black holes. In this module the student will learn about the lifecycle of stars, how stars produce energy, and how they radiate away energy. We will explore the death of stars, and what is produced by the death of stars, on all scales ; from the building blocks of life (carbon) to black holes.

Impartido por:

Sharon Morsink

Associate Professor

Transcripción

One of the outcomes of our thinking about the sun growing up or being born in a neighborhood and then growing up with a bunch of other stars is that we actually have stellar siblings. Those stellar siblings have left the nest, this cluster in which we formed and have gone out, and we think that right now we have stellar siblings that are spread throughout the galaxy. The stars that are formed in clusters ultimately dissolve into the background of stars within the galaxy. But if we look out, we can actually see individual stars out there that have basically the same pattern of chemical enrichment as the sun, and we think that those were the stars that we were formed with. We can never know because we'd have to unwind billions of years of going around the center of the galaxy and map it back and make sure we're at the same place, and that's something we really can't understand from the dynamics of the stars around us. But the signature does point to every now and then we can look out and we pass one of the siblings stars near which we were born.